EthnicMajority

(Huffington Post) Latino children are 60% more at risk for asthma than white non-Latino kids. Because I am Latina, I've become even more interested in the topic and what I can do to create awareness.

Even though my 5-year-old daughter was diagnosed with asthma two years ago and I've done my share of research on the topic, I don't consider myself an expert. Thanks to my involvement with the Moms Clean Air Force – a group of moms fighting for clean air, I've learned a lot about how this disease affects Latino children in particular.

We've been lucky that my daughter has never had a full-blown asthma attack and the majority of her problems now stem from colds that usually have to be treated a bit more aggressively so they don't become a more serious ailment.

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(Babble.com) A new study shows that breastfeeding for even one month lowers mom’s lifetime risk for Type 2 diabetes. Previous research has shown a correlation between breastfeeding and reduced diabetes in mothers, this study confirms and extends those findings.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburg looked at data from over 2000 women in Kasier Permenente’s healthcare system aged 40-78. They found that women who gave birth but did not breastfeed were twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared with women who breastfed or never gave birth.

The reduction of diabetes risk may be related to the way breastfeeding women lose weight. Breastfeeding can help women lose “visceral” fat– the kind stored around the stomach and organs, and the hardest to lose. But it could also be that lactation improves glucose metabolism– diabetic women usually require less insulin when they are breastfeeding.

Though breastfeeding is often talked about in terms of benefits for the baby- including reduced risk for obesity, allergies, asthma and infections– there are benefits for the mother, too. Breastfeeding is associated with reduced reproductive cancers, arthritis, heart disease. Though the studies supporting these claims show benefits only for mothers who breastfeed for more than several months. (You can read more about these benefits here.)

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(CNN) African American and Hispanic children may not be receiving the same care and treatment for asthma as Caucasian children, even when they have the same access to care.

A study published in this week’s medical journal, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, examined more than 800,000 children who were covered by the same health insurance system provided by the U.S. military. They found the prevalence and severity of asthma were higher in black and Hispanic children than their white peers.

Researchers suspect that just because patients used the same health plan didn’t necessarily mean they were getting the same care. Experts say this may be a result of the differences in the way various ethnic groups utilize the health care system or differences in the treatments received.

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